Posted on 06/23/2013 8:25:58 PM PDT by grundle
In Maine, New Jersey, New York, Vermont, and Washington, insurance markets are already regulated in much the same way that Obamacare will. These states force insurers to cover everyone, despite pre-existing conditions, and they oblige carriers to charge similar rates to younger and older customers. Despite these factors, it turns out that in Washington state, Obamacare will still increase the underlying cost of individually purchased health insurance by 34 to 80 percent, on average.
Washington state imposed ACA-like reforms in 1993
the Evergreen State blew up its individual health insurance market in 1993, when Democrats instituted a set of reforms modeled after Hillary Clinton’s plan for universal coverage. The state instituted guaranteed issue (barring insurers from excluding pre-existing conditions), community rating (the young subsidizing the old), premium price controls, and planned to phase in employer and individual mandates to purchase health insurance. It mandated the benefits that each plan must carry, and raised taxes to subsidize the purchase of these insurance plans by low-income state residents.
But in 1994, Washington voters put Republicans in charge of the state legislature; the GOP repealed all of the Democrats’ reforms except two: guaranteed issue and community rating. As Carol Ostrom of the Seattle Times described, Washingtonians quickly figured out how to game the system by dropping in and out of coverage when they had health bills to pay:
What happened next is starkly summarized in a 1995 letter sent to Premera Blue Cross by a woman in Eastern Washington.
A few months before she gave birth that year, the woman bought an individual policy from Premera. As soon as the insurer paid her hospital expenses, the woman canceled the policy, telling Premera “we will do business with you again when we are pregnant.”
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
They’ve already started going up.
Yep. Last year mine double-dipped: fewer options and less coverage for a much higher premium.
Thank you Øbongo and thank you rob mekenna.
Somebody has to pay for the freeloaders and illegals to get their “free” healthcare promised to them by their DemocRAT massas.
Ours went up 25% last November (am awash state resident). Had to pay - in advance - for people with pre existing conditions was the “reason”. So I dropped my dental trying to stay ‘even’.
Will likely drop all heath care in 2014 if another increase. Then every Fu$#g Evergreen student and POS state worker can pay for my catastrophic coverage when I walk into the horsepistol and demand service like the illegals do.
The “Affordable Care” act. Thanks Chief Justice!
Look to Washington D.C. to see the bad things coming to all the exchanges.
My health insurance went from “free from employer” to $500/month. What’s that percentage increase?
In the last four years years my monthly insurance bill (WA state, two adults, three kids, catastrophic, high deductible) has gone from $328/mo. to $987/mo. And now even higher deductible and a lesser maximum.
But - abortions and birth control pills are probably covered, so there’s that. Probably tattoos as well.
I for one can’t wait until Obamacare kicks in and it will be free.
You’re forgetting one salient point, bro, the noncompliance penalty. Prepared to be a test case, after all the Feds and the State know who you are and what political mindset you possess, you will be punished.
It’s like the old Fram commercial...”Pay me now or PAY me later! “Before you slam it, Fram it”, my single person policy went up by $300 monthly if it does it again maybe we can request being housed in the Freeper Wing at Walla Walla.
don’t forget about paying for viagra....
As Nancy says, we all must pay out the yang-yang for the benefit of Affordable Healthcare. It’s the new American way.
I still laugh at the name they gave it - Affordable Care Act. We all knew there would be nothing affordable about it and when has more government involvement ever made things cheaper?
These turds in Congress destroy everything they touch.
I'm hoping for a view of the Blue Mountains; not sure which side they made my reservation. My luck will probably be death row in the basement.
I'd be happy stocking shelves at Dingle's Hardware in Dayton...
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